Gates of Derrilen

Someones bout to get woke son

After slaying the demons that possibly proved to be too strong for the party to handle, the mysterious figure calls out “Where is the daughter?” He stand almost 9ft tall with obsidian and gray skin that contrast his short silver hair. He bears a mark over his chest, two infinity symbols overlapped. Zara steps forth, recognizing the symbol as the same one she bears on her own chest. He explains that they are Children of Graz’zt. Seeing zaras confusion, he explains it would be easiest to explain at the Argent Palace and leads them further into the labyrinth of tunnels known as the Drillers Hives.

He reveals that the Children of Graz’zt is a title, not a relation. Zara has not yet awoken however, a journey she must accomplish with her allies. The only way to do so is at a temple just outside the city walls of Azzagrat, one of the three layers that Graz’zt controls. However due to erritory wars over the past 400years, this temple has been overrun by orcus’s minions. The temple was a way for followers on the material plane to traverse into the Abyss many years ago, meaning it just might be a way for the party to get out.

Zara reveals that every year on her birthday, people around her become sick and tend to die. Also, her birthday is in 5 days. He explains the “Sickness” that sprouts from her is the seed of power she holds trying to grow and break out, but without the awakening ritual, it is uncontrolled and dangerous. He can lead the party to the temple when they are ready, but inside is a task they must accomplish alone.

That night, Limbo has a dream. He stands tall above several goblins barking out orders in a language he doesn’t understand. A wolf sits besides him, a chained collar held in his left hand. The dream shifts. Suddenly his face is burning hot with fire. As he rises, he can feel the pain of burn marks and other wounds covering his body. A heavy armored individual lays unconscious next to him. He raises his hand against his will, going for the killing blow when his chest is pierced from behind. A split second later it explodes as he feels his body overcome with cold and awakening from his sleep.

The next day they head to the Market of Malice to better equip themselves for the task ahead.
Some buying and selling later, they acquire more enchanted gems, a few new nice weapons, and some exotic cloaks. As well as buying 3 Dragonborn slaves off of a hag. Balthus, a teenage gold dragonborn, Vexithal, an adolescent green dragonborn, and a young silver dragonborn who doesn’t speak much so noone knows his name.

The party returns to the Argent Palace to rest while contemplating their next move.

"That horse is a higher level than we are!"

With Verax back to relative safety, the party turns their attention to Bradley Denner. Denner agrees to meet with Savash and try to get him to leave The Shipyard (the name of his HQ). Unbeknownst to him however, The party agreed to send Bellatrix in as a spider to quietly keep an eye on him and do some recon about The Shipyard. She follows Bradley in and acts as a fly spider on the wall. A short conversation later – including talk of Immerals death, a retired adventuring party by the name of Crux somewhere in shilln, and a call for assistance in taking over shilln – they shake on it and Bradley is escorted out. Spider Bellatrix begins following Savash back to his office and catches him writing out a letter saying things like “complications in shilln”, “prison attack”, and “Reinforcements tonight” before he closes it and tucks it away. On the second floor of the building she find a room decorated with nautical accessories and a large table with a heavily marked map of Derillen. Points of interest included The Malos Basin, Shilln, Sunrise Swamp, and the lost Empire of Katar. The time on her wild shape fading, Bellatrix sneaks back out to the guild and fills the party in.

They take the information from Savash’s letter to mean that he’ll be taking reinforcements to shilln and decided to stake out The Shipyard in hopes of ambushing him when he leaves. They, along with Alder, hide out on the neighboring rooftops until early next morning. No sign of reinforcements or Savash. Unsuccessful, they make their way back to the guild to find that the well entrance has had its wood boards ripped off. the part quickly rushes down finding the main chamber in a state of severe dissaray. Crates smashed, papers strewn about the floor and the two remaining scouts lying in pools of their own blood. Frantically searching room to room, they finally find Verax, Traxxis, and James licking their wounds over whatever had just transpired.

“They came out of nowhere. There wasnt a sound to be heard in the guild except for the screaming coming from one of the scouts. But even that didn’t last long. We were fighting blind against what ever they were, creatures of torrential air tearing through these hallways. How are we supposed to fight what we couldn’t see? We didn’t stand a chance and they weren’t even after us!” James explains, words nearly screamed between hesitant silences. He points out the lifeless body of Bradley Denner

"i'll get in the cell, but no weird shit though"

Where we last left off over a month ago, the party was split. While Bewilder, Ospin, and Limbo flew away to safety,Shadow, Zahir, and Bellatrix were left to fend for themselves in the Stelltigit Oubliette. The three searched the cells they could find, however only finding an older man gaunt features and worn scars, they left him in his cell and continued searching the Oubliette. Further on, they walked in on 3 guards prepping an ambush from whatever was attacking outside. Luckily, Shadow was dressed as a guard with the help of the snapback of disguise and managed to quickly talk his way out of further conflict by sending the guards upstairs as backup. Several minutes of searching and questioning the previously found prisoner, they eventually found a secret passage leading to a room adorned with hooked chains, rusty carving tools, a blood-soaked stone table, and a stairway leading further down to a cell containing one white dragonborn by the name of Verax Frostfang, sporting a new heavy scar across his face and intricately chained to the ground and ceiling.

After getting shocked by a booby trapped cell lock and a surprise defensive cold breath attack from verax, they find that he’s been placed on a pressure plate mechanism of some sort that would activate if he were removed. They quickly emptied the bag of hold of whatever they could bear to part with to try and Indiana Jones counter weight the plate, but still fell short of Verax’s weight. With some quick thinking and iffy convincing, they were able to get the previous prisoner (who they still never bothered to ask his name or anything) to sit on the heap of junk so they could remove Verax safely. Once it occurred to the prisoner that they had no intention of rescuing him as well, he made a run for the door, activating the pressure plate. A loud crash of a slamming metal gate blocking the doorway startles the players as white smoke began to fill the room from the stone faces that adorned the four support pillars in the room. Failing to find a way to stop it, Shadow lit a bomb and blew the door the fuck up. It worked wonders, except that the smoke was flammable and sent a fiery explosion recoiling back into the room, knocking out both Verax and that other guy (still no name). Bellatrix and Shadow tried to carry Verax out but were met at the top of the stairs byOnar Rotec and several guards ready to strike down the intruders. SMOKEBOMB. Shadow throws it as he quickly tries to shove everyone in the bag of holding and dash the fuck outta there. After safely escaping the Oubliette, Shadow is greeted by the sight of Davos running circles around guards, kiting and distracting them as another Davos concentrates on the same sight. He runs up to her and dumps the bodies out to find that Verax is not breathing and beyond the help of divine magic. Then it didn’t matter.

Verax’s dead body began emitting a faint purple glow to it as he suddenly takes a deep breath back to life which was exhaled as a purple haze that just as quickly dissipates. With their mission done, Those remaining in the prison quickly fled back to the safety of the guild.

"I'd like to shoot Lisa Ann at the guards"

Upon seeing Bradley Denner under the thieves guilds watch, Shadow, Limbo, and Zahir agreed that it’d be best to rendezvous with the rest of the party before questioning/interrogating him.

During this time, the rest of the party decided to hit the town went carousing about. Ospin found himself in bed with Bellatrix the next morning with vague memories of gambling at an underground establishment, while Bewilder found himself in the shield districts holding center after a drunken scuffle with the guards.

Shadow waited for the rest of the party in the Satyr Springs tavern to bring them to his old guild, where he was eventually greeted by an incredibly intoxicated Ospin who gave his winnings to shadow for “Safe keeping.” The next morning Shadow and Ospin go out and search for their missing cleric and, to noones surprise, find out he’s been locked up. They agree to pay for his fines and reclaim his confiscated possessions. Simultaneously, Bewilder is making his escape with the help of 2 goblins (Slurry and Barvin), and a human (Yuslov), knocking out every guard that comes in. With a well timed Fog Cloud and a Bag of Holding getaway vehicle, the adventurers successfully prevent a full on guard conflict… for now.

After getting the group together, Shadow leads the way back into the thieves guild and introduces the party to his old crew. Davos, Traxxis, Alder, and a surprising new addition in the form of James Ford, son of the ex-holy districts commander, Alton Ford. After some pressing, James reveals the reason for this unlikely team up is that his father also went missing around the same time that Verax did and thinks they may be linked. They then begin to “question” Mr. Denner.

It’s revealed that the thieves guild was responsible for luring Bradley to Gildam under false pretenses due to his connection with Savash, Red Guard Captain of the Market District. Savash employed Immeral, a drow mage whom the party found hiding in the Clocktower at Shilln, to reduce the population of the town. (Immeral was responsible for the spider infestation to which Bradley was an accomplice, letting the initial spiders into town through the tunnels beneath his house.)

Savash has been making guild operations difficult, so Davos suggested he be the first target in ridding Gildam of the red guards Bradley says he never met Savash however, only worked through his middle man. A few beatings later and a well timed threat to his daughter Emily, Bradley agrees to be cooperative. Before taking out Savash, the party decides breaking Verax out of the Stelltigit Oubliette that lays secretly below the prison in the Shield District. Trying to set up a connection from within, Zahir and (who else but) Bewilder start an all out brawl with some of the guards at the Colliseum. They did such a good job that Lo-Kag “The Brawlzerker”, a Red Guard Captain of the Vice District, came and personally intervened, quickly knocking the two out. Lo-kag then dragged the unconscious adventurers to the Shieldgate Prison, transferring words with a man dressed in full red plate armor, similar to that of the guard captains.

Then shit went down.

As soon as the sun set, Ospin let loose a fireball, blowing the front gates open along with several guards. Limbo, Traxxis, and Alder then followed suit, causing a big enough commotion to distract the guards long enough for Shadow (currently using the Snapback of Disguise to look like a guard) and Bellatrix to sneak in. They found Zahir and Bewilders cells as Bellatrix went up ahead, leaving the rogue to do what he does best (pick locks, not not-deal dam). Once free, Bewilder goes off alone to get revenge against a guard who insulted his (dead) mother. Bewilder held his ground against the dozens of guards that swarmed him as Shadow, Zahir, and Bellatrix found their way into a hidden basement, guarded with traps and animated armor. After stiking down about a dozen guards down, Bewilder was confronted by the man in full red platemail, Onar Rotec, Red Guard Captain of the Shield District. One swing and a shit ton of damage dealt by Onar had Bewilder calling for backup, to which only Shadow heard and responded. Bewilder played defensively until Limbo and Ospin was able to flyby on the magic carpet and, using the bag of holding as a getaway vehicle again, managed to rescue the genasi cleric.

With half of the party fleeing for safety and the other half beneath the Prison, who knows what dangers await the party. Find out next time on Dragon Ball Z!SOLZ & BOBZZ

"you deal 7 points of chicken damage"

2 weeks later and i forgot some stuff. and i feel lazy right now so just bullet points

went to the library

- learned about the elemental planes. overworld locations with high concentration of elements (volcanos, stormy seas, deserts, clouds, etc) are in close planar proximity.

went carousing

- ospin woke up under a park bench and met Bellatrix

Got a quest from Morgain, Captain of the Craft District

- 5 Vials of Rust monster blood and a shit ton of Fey stone from a quarry about 2 days north of Gildam

Caught some cockatrice at the zoo

- 500g for returning the dozen cockatrice to their cage

went to thieves guild

- Shadow brough Limbo and Zahir down a well, past some traps and into a secret door where they came across 3 rogue figures and engaged. Elven woman call out to shadow by the name Eli and brings them to a prisoner

After the interrogation, the party decided that there were more pressing matters at hand to get involved with this small town. They awoke the next morning to a town ready to follow the party into battle and fight back. The party instead convinced the citizens to seek aid from Shilln, and possibly look into forming an alliance with the “Snake People” that the Lizard Folk had mentioned. After a few horse purchases, they move on toward Gildam.

The party quickly gets distracted as they pass three glowing motes of red, blue, and green color. Zahir and Limbo decide to take chase and eventually follow these lights to three dead bodies around what seemed to be a recent lightning strike. While investigating the bodies, the party was ambushed by a large mass of living nature composed of vines, stones, and bits of bark. After a few surprises, including a self detonated fireball and a hostile symbiosis from the will o’ wisps, the party manages to overcome the threat and continues forward. As days go by, the party accidentally traverses through a patch of razorvine and narrowly escaping swarms of snakes hidden in the underbrush at the cost of two of their horses.

Upon finally leaving the forest, the party is greeted by an odd sight. A small collection of gazelles (Yes, gazelles in the forest. It’s canon and idgaf) with their horns tied together. As they freed the FOREST creatures, they were interrupted by four men in red armor and cloaks yelling “What are you doing with our bait?!” Before the party could ask “bait?” a monstrous shriek blasted as two wyverns rushed from the edge of the forest. Blows were exchanged as the wyverns poison brought one of the four armored individuals to his end. Bewilder rushed over to the fallen victim to bring him back to life, incurring a life debt from him. The guards explained that they were from Gildam with their captains and were trying to retrieve an escaped wyvern from the city zoo known as The Monster Menagerie and that there was a reward for it’s return. The second one was a surprise and would’ve overwhelmed them had the party not shown up.

Shortly after, A male green dragonborn flew in on a giant eagle, which shifted into an elven women after landing. They introduced themselves as Tobias and Freya, the two captains of the Expedition Guild, and offered the party passage into the city for helping their underlings.
Upon entering Gildam, the party passed through two layers of city walls, separated by well-worn terrain spotted with potholes and assorted scorch marks. Being new to the city, Tobias ordered the four guards to escort the party through the city and act as their guide. They made a few stops around the town, including a market district covered in halfling, elven, and infernal graffiti saying “Crash the Pigs Brandy”, before a group of children made off with one of the guards coin purse, causing the four of them to take chase.

Zara took this opportunity to immediately add Orcish to the selection of graffiti’d languages. Halfway through her scrawling, the air around her instantly removed of all noise as a dagger launched from the shadows into her leg. Barely surviving, but was rendered unconscious by whatever the dagger was coated with. A figure cloaked in black leather armor stepped from the shadows as Bewilder, in his new slowed form, rushed to save her. Ospin went to join the action, but fell unconscious by mysterious means as a smaller humanoid figure jumped from the rooftops, launching two daggers at Limbo. Shadow, who stood back processing the sudden chaos, was attacked from behind. The blue eyed assailant stopped a dagger inches from his face, allowing Shadow to disarm the dagger from his/her hand. With these unknown attacker seemingly having the upper hand, the party was surprised when the figure who attacked Shadow issued a retreat and all three mysterious figures disappeared into the shadows.

Bye Bye Birdie

After sleeping on their options, the party decided that their next course of action was to visit the History Guild in Gildam to find out more about their new responsibilities. Ospin, Zahir, Shadow, and Limbo left first thing in the morning with the rest of the party promising to catch up with them. On their first night, they decided to set up camp two hours into the forest. During his watch, Limbo spotted out several creatures passing dangerously close to the camp shortly before sunrise. Playing it safe, they took the fight to these creatures before they could be spotted. Closer inspection revealed these creatures as being humanoid with green scales covering their body and a lizard like snout. Each of them (3) were accompanied by a pair of dog sized creatures with similar lizard traits to their handlers. After they quickly dispatched of the possible threat and starting yet another forest fire, they concluded that it was likely a scouting party and moved on.

Bewilder caught up with the party quickly using the ever so common smokestack they tend to leave behind. Few hours pass by of uneventful travel until a slight shine catches Zahirs eye. He finds an old lamp underneath the foliage, worn with age. As he wipes the tarnish off the lamp, it releases a bestial roar from it. Surprised, the parties first instinct is to hide as several apes gathered on the surrounding treetops. Only seconds passed before the ground beneath them began to rumble with increasing veracity. Through the treeline a Giant Ape smashes his way through the overgrow and quickly spots out Bewilder hiding in a tree.

The Giant Ape hurls a large boulder towards the cleric, smashing into his bird body leaving him with 1hp. Undeterred by this, Bewilder flies beak first into danger and grapples onto the Apes back. Unfortunately, Bewilder is not quite out of reach as one of the Apes massive fist slams into him, knocking him unconscious. Shadow quickly responds and dashes to pull him out of danger while Zahir and Limbo distract him. Ospin hurries his way over to his fallen friend to heal him, but Bewilder has succumbed quicker than expected to the devastating blow and remains motionless. In a fit of rage, Ospin unleashes a furious inferno of fiery attacks at the ape, finishing it off and then immediately calling to The Eldritch Eight for help. Arguing how to proceed next, the party is interrupted by an arcane flash carrying Kawalsh, Luminaire, and Seldom. Being dead for over a minute, Luminaire was unable to revive his former apprentice, but Seldom was more prepared. He warned the party of the dangers of bring the dead back to life, and that he would not return as the same bird brain they knew. With the players consent and the consumption of a mysterious spell component, Seldom reincarnated bewilder into an air genasi (to Zahirs happy surprise). They also learn that the tarnished lamp was one of an unknown number of artifacts knows as a “Lamp of the Beast (Ape)”

The next day, the party stumbles upon the aftermath of a wagon explosion. Burrowing through the wreckage, they happily stumble across a chest seemingly untouched by the explosion. Inside they find a wooden shield, adorned with red circles on the front and a metal band etched with arcane sigils, two rings, one with a gold band formed to look like flames surrounding a red gem, and one in the shape of a skull with the jawbone surrounding the finger, two sets of plate armor, one adorned with spikes and claws throughout the entire set and the other with a belt decorated with a small golden sword between a red hammer and arrow, and a large warhammer, made of a dark green material and the word “Warcry” etched into the side. Counting their blessings, the party moves on towards their destination.

At Sundown, the party reaches the small town of Riverwheel. The buildings are in a state of recent disrepair as members of the town work on repairs. Adell, an overweight older man, clean shaven and bald, welcomes the party to town and tells them that Lizardfolk and their drakes have been attacking the town lately, demanding supplies and that they’d return at next sunset. The party stays the night, helping with what repairs they can, and sets a trap for the Lizardfolks arrival. After a battle involving hunting traps and a makeshift bomb of Ospins concoction, they easily defended the town and captured one of the Lizardfolk to interrogate.

The interrogations revealed that a lizardfolk tribe are being invaded by “snake people” and the attacks on Riverwheel only for survival purposes. They manage to get the location of the “snake city” out of their prisoner before Bewilder brutally bashes its skull in

After convincing Mayor Morrs to let them keep the clock tower as a home base, the mayor and the party were summoned to the Mages Guild for an emergency meeting. Upon arrival, they saw Tim the Sorcerer sitting at a large table along with Ithvikar, Warden, and Kawalsh, with a late arrival by Lillith. The party would then learn that the nature of this meeting was to discuss the Aboleth that was recently slain by the party.

Ospin explained that the Aboleth said it was awoken by a “Disruption in the planar gates”, which caused an almost palpable shift in tension among the mystery guests. Tim the Sorcerer explain that those who stood (or rather sat) before the party were 5 out of 8 of the outer gate keepers. There are 8 outer gates lead to dimensions that range from total structure and order to destructive, ever-changing chaos. In addition to these 8 outer planes, there are 6 Inner planes: The Four Elemental Planes of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water, The Feywild, and The Shadowfell. These portals were guarded by an adventuring party that had assisted the 8 Outer Gatekeepers previously. They took a vow of secrecy and hid with the location of the major gate to their plane. They only knew of how to contact one of these Inner Keepers, and that he would arrive a day later.

And then shit went down.

The meeting was abruptly (and rudely) interrupted by a large winged female devil, clad in full plate and an enormous longsword, came smashing into the side of the tower, followed by a large swarm of other devilish creatures. After a near death experience for Zahir Sahesh, the party managed to escape the tower with Mayor Morrs only to find an even larger cluster of devils outside the guilds doors. Hope seemed lost for this group as they were quickly outmatched by the sheer number of creatures surrounding them. Then even more shit went down. As the sound of rushing air grew ever louder, a large shadow flying impossibly fast over rained a thick purple smoke down on the opposing army. Before there was time to react, the smoke ignited into a blinding radiance, only shadows of the enemy remained, seared into the ground they stood upon. From the clearing of smoke, a Half-Elf rushed forward towards the party, one eye gold, one eye purple. Running past the party, he knocks back an necromancer assassin who came inches away from targeting Ospin. With the sudden turn of the tide, the mysterious necromancer called for a retreat as disappeared in an arcane flash. The 5 outer keepers met up with the party and revealed that the Half-elf was the 6th member of the outer keepers. In a turn of events, the Half-elf introduced himself as Seldom, Ospins former mentor.

After that, the party decided there was nothing left to do but wait for the inner gate keeper to arrive. In their free time, they went to The Rusty Nail and had a second go at the underground battle ring below the tavern. In the first bracket, Bewilder was paired of against his former mentor Luminaire and went down in the second round. Next bracket Zahir lost to a dwarf named Tavrok, looking for revenge after his defeat the night before. After defeating the previous champion and tavern owner, Vamorea, Zed Kazooie faced off against Luminaire in the final round, losing after putting up a good fight. During the fight, members of the party found their gold missing, and gave chase to a suspected halfling. Bewilder and Zara got caught up and distracted by a bar fight on the main floor while the halfling gave Zahir and Shadow the slip.

The party made their way back to the mages guild the next morning to find that the Inner Gatekeeper they awaited was none other than the blue scales of austrian fury, Luminaire. Luminaire explained that he was one in a party of 7 who were tasked with keeping the 6 inner planes safe, along with Mugen, Zen, Luna, Travis, Lucius, and Kairon. Zed and Zahir immediately recognized Mugen and Zen as their respective father. After death, the role of Gatekeeper is passed down to their eldest child, making both Zed and Zahir the new keepers of Fire and Air. Luminaire also mentioned that he saw Kairon death as he unleashed the raw elemental power of the Earth Gate, completely sealing The Empire of Katar off from the rest of the world. Before this however, Luminaire escaped with Kairon’s wife, Celia, and son to an area south of the Sandwall Highlands. In order to keep her son safe, Celia insisted that she be separated from the boy and left shortly after. He has not heard from either since.

The Eldritch Eight tasked the party with investigating the rest of the inner portals. Luminaire has a lead that a water gate may be located on Turtle Moon Island. The city of Talveraan is old enough that they might have some useful information, and the elves there have a strong connection with the Feywild. The History Guild at Gildam is one of the most extensive collections of information on the continent and is definitely worth looking at.

The adventure log is where you list the sessions and adventures your party has been on, but for now, we suggest doing a very light “story so far” post. Just give a brief overview of what the party has done up to this point. After each future session, create a new post detailing that night’s adventures.

One final tip: Don’t stress about making your Obsidian Portal campaign look perfect. Instead, just make it work for you and your group. If everyone is having fun, then you’re using Obsidian Portal exactly as it was designed, even if your adventure log isn’t always up to date or your characters don’t all have portrait pictures.